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Thursday, February 28, 2013

CORRUPTION CAN KILL: Cyberjaya flyover awarded during BN's time & to a crony - Tian

Embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak and his BN administration are working overtime to contain the political damage from a flyover that snapped into two in Cyberjaya.

Already, the word 'corruption' is on the lips of many Malaysians as the overhead bridge is merely the latest in a long list of failed public projects undertaken by the BN government, which has come under fire for endemic corruption and abuse of power.

The government-aligned media have tried to deflect attention from Najib and his BN colleague by stressing that the flyover was already closed for repairs. But critics say that is not a good excuse as public safety is involved and people could have been killed.

Khir Toyo's time

There are also insinuations that the Selangor government - in the hands of the Opposition since 2008 - was to blame.

However preliminary findings show that the construction contract was awarded during former Selangor chief minister Khir Toyo's time.

According to Opposition leaders, state development body PKNS had picked one of Khir's associates to build the bridge.

"This bridge has got nothing to do with Pakatan Rakyat. The causes of the collapse are mainly due to design faults, cost-cutting to boost profit margins. PKNS awarded the contract to one of Khir's cronies," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

The RM7 million flyover, which is located near the Selangor Science Park 2, is an exit from the Elite Highway (KM P2.4) towards SSP2. The Lingkaran Putrajaya stretch managed by PLUS towards Putrajaya runs below it.

BNI Construction started construction of the flyover on October 2007, completing the job on November 2009. Four developers – PKNS, Utuh Aspirasi Sdn Bhd, Taraf Unggul Sdn Bhd, and Semai Ria Sdn Bhd – shared the cost for its construction.

Could have led to fatalities

The flyover collapsed around 12.30pm on Thursday and appeared to have been broken into two pieces. PKNS confirmed that no one was hurt in the incident but critics are not appeased.

"Thank God no one was hurt but there must be a thorough investigation. Not only of the contractor but the people involved in the awarding of the project. We cannot play dice with the people's lives or with public safety," Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.

Don't point fingers

Meanwhile, Minister of Works Shaziman Abu Mansor has issued a statement, confirming that the flyover and the road below it were closed since December 7 last year, and will remain closed until December 31 this year, depending on the speed of repair works.

“On December 7, I visited the bridge after I was informed by the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) that there was movements on one of the pillars at the Science Park 2 tiered interchange that connects to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya,” said Shaziman.

According to PKNS general manager Othman Omar, the flyover has been handed over to highway operator PLUS Malaysia Berhad. He also said that both PKNS and PLUS began investigations last December after noticing damage to the flyover from excavation works.

“Before we could finish the investigation, the flyover has collapsed,” Malaysian Insider reported Othman as telling reporters here.

“We don’t want this to be a war of pointing fingers ... We want to take pro-active measures, we will fix this first. Hopefully along the way we will resolve this issue,” Othman added.